Debbie’s a Bitch, Trip is on the Back Burner BUT! Need MOAR Food, But Been a Good Day!

60 thoughts on “Debbie’s a Bitch, Trip is on the Back Burner BUT! Need MOAR Food, But Been a Good Day!”

1. If they’re that bad off, due to their ages you might have someone with a civil tongue in their head call about ‘Meals on Wheels’ or other senior program.

   Considering it’s The Villages, there might be an actual paid-for person or persons working for the management company that deals with senior programs.

   Also, if the ‘rents are ‘church people,’ contact the local branch of whatever congregation they used to belong to and see about any aid for seniors.

   And, it being The Villages, whoever of the olde pharts are in connection/control there might also be helpful. Maybe the American Legion or VFW Hall if one is active there.

   There’s also the SHARE program and Angel Foods, which for a fixed price of XX.XX amount, you get a bag or box of decent quality fresh food and staples. Usually the meat is preprepped like chicken nuggets or meatballs or such, there’s usually some pasta and rice, some sauces, some veggies and fruit. They are usually through a local church, so it takes running some phone connections to get on the list. May also require having someone show up on a Saturday to help pack or pick up. But both programs have saved my ass bigly when I was in dire straights.

   Sadly, if either of the ‘rents has food allergy issues, most programs won’t deal well with that. Common food issues are peanuts and gluten. Peanuts are obvious but gluten is in fucking almost everything that’s processed, which is a bitch to find out as it’s often covered under ‘modified food starch.’ Fortunately most gluten issues result in slowdown of the digestive system and not fatal-death-strike like peanuts.

   The Share and Angel Foods programs might save you and the Gretch and Sapper some cash, too.

   Lot of these programs are somewhat nationwide, so they might be available for Miss Daisy, too.

   And, geez, if trees aren’t flying sideways, real whole trees, it’s just a windy wet day for us Floridians who’ve been here for a while. Shit, my granma on my mom’s side remembered a storm so bad when she was a kid in Tampa that it went miles inland. Woooo. It’s Florida, weeee…. At least we have building codes that account for something, unlike NY or NY or Hawaii.

   1. Boomers generally don’t have food allergies. That explosion happened in the 80s

      Otherwise a good comment. Seniors have a lot of programs.

      1. Yeah, I grew up in the 60s and 70s, and nobody I ever met back then had food allergies.

         I wonder what happened ?

         1. I knew a set of twins in the 70’s allergic to peanuts, their mom blamed it on the anti nausea meds her doctor gave her while pregnant.

      2. Not true. I know people my age (born in 63) who have food allergies. It’s just not been recognized and diagnosed really until the 80’s.

         Like Asbergers and Autism. Runs in my family, looking at the symptoms it explains my dad’s mom, her mom, her mom’s mom all back to before the mid 1800’s, by family stories.

         And you can get allergies from some really weird things, like, oh, say multiple multiple blood transfusions. It’s not talked about openly in the medical world but getting someone else’s blood added to you on a regular basis does change your body’s responses to outside influences. So do things like severe thyroid issues because the thyroid affects the whole body including the immune response system. Again, something known medically but not talked about openly.

         And you’re really borked if you get an organ transplant. The major thing that fucks you up, besides that foreign body now in you, is having to take anti-rejection drugs, which screws up the body’s immune system, so that you don’t reject the organ. For life. Taking fuck-up drugs for life. And that can cause allergies to show up.

         Of course, organ transplants got big in the… 70’s and 80’s, deaths before from allergies and other rejection issues before were kind of ignored.

         Allergies are weird. You can be totally fine one day and then something happens and, zap, suddenly you’re allergic to something. And you can drop an allergy just as, zap, easily. Often associated with the aging process.

         1. Never had an allergy in my life
            UNTIL
            Camp Victory (VBC) in Baghdad in late 2005… the Big Wig Gen’ruls FINALLY decided to get ‘caught up’ on Saddam’s ‘Gardening’ so to speak…

            Every inch around the canals and ponds on VBC had bamboo growing EVERYWHERE. It was crazy tall when this order went out… They set the TCNs, mostly Philippinos, to doing a ‘slash and burn’ of allllllll that long grown assed shit… I got ‘sick’ so to speak… couldn’t breathe, red eyes, itchy eyes, rashes etc. Turns out? Yep. I’m allergic to Bamboo and it’s pollen. (When you cut bamboo, it goes into ‘overdrive’ as a survival mechanism and pollenates and cross pollinates like a pure-d motherfucker)

            B/C of that, I now have mold allergies, as well as some ‘other’ ‘stuff’ that crops up in the spring… before that? Not a fucking issue ever dammit.

2. Landline is a rip off because hardly anyone has it anymore.
   Got rid of ours after 40 years due to the $50 a month and www is insanely fast now.
   Some music DL go at 6mb a second, the trunk is at the front of the neighborhood.
   Built up canned goods, cleaning supplies, dry snacks, stockpile from various church pantries which are now stressed to the limits, not going anymore since so many are in need.
   A bud sent a food windfall 30 day supply with dry ice topper for Saturday Morale Booster.
   Doubtful comrade lefty will stick together when it goes Mad Max.
   Carlin has the classic just use the same brush on the armpits, ass, crotch, teeth, morning speed clean.

   1. The only advantage to a land line is that I should work when nothing else will for far longer.

      1. For a true, copper from the house to the CO landline maybe (but these days probably not, since nobody gives a shit about maintaining the physical plant like old AT&T used to), but there are getting to be fewer of those circuit switched lines around anymore. Many are just VOIP with an adapter interface box at the customer end that powers and rings the phones in the house, but the actual comms are done over IP back to the ISP headend providing the tv/internet/phone as a package deal.

         If the “land line” is setup like this, the loss of internet kills the phone, as does a prolonged power failure (a small UPS is usually provided for the router/VOIP interface box) and might get you a couple of hours before it runs out. A bigger UPS can be attached at one’s own expense, but that gets you maybe 8 hours tops. You want more than that, get a generator. And that still doesn’t account for loss of service due to damaged infrastructure.

         In hurricane country where utility poles, overhead lines, ground level roadside equipment boxes, and even the building where the headend is located are subject to damage, the likelihood of losing service is that much greater, at least in a severe storm. Of course, the same caveats apply to conventional landlines.

         Since they have a life alert type setup, they are pretty well stuck using a landline (even if simulated by a VOIP service). There are Bluetooth to wireline phone bridges that can use a cell phone to provide service to conventional phones in the house (similar to how the VOIP to wired phone interface works), but then that requires the cellphone to be charged, on and present in the house at all times for the system to work. And I’m not sure it would play nice with an alert pendant setup like that anyway.

         Depending on their true financial situation, they might qualify for reduced rate phone service, but if they have a place at The Villages and a $240/month cable bill, they’re probably over the threshold for qualifying legitimately.

3. G. Carlin’s hygiene:

   https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X29lF43mUlo

4. A pot of chili, soup, sketti and such can be zip-locked and frozen for 1-2 servings. A case of Ramen noodles is pretty cheap on the Zon. Cans of Campbell’s soup are cheaper than Alpo. Crackers are cheap with a fairly long shelf life. Meals on Wheels and food banks are options as well. Can they get food stamps (EBT)? I keep powdered eggs, powdered milk, powdered cheese and butter (good on popcorn), and powdered tomatoes on hand just in case. No need to go hungry in this country.

5. Oh yeah, rice and dried beans are good, cheap belly fillers. Keep ’em in the freezer. Don’t forget the salt.

   1. Yep. I found out the hard way to put the bans and rice in the freezer. Once we evils hatch they invade the whole pantry and are a bitch to kill off

6. If you email me their address I’ll send them some grub via the Zon. Just let me know what to send. Old folks ain’t going hungry. Be cool.

   1. You can have my address.
      Just dial 1-800-no-f-way

      1. Just trying to help out, asswipe. If you’re that paranoid you can fucking starve.

         1. Lol right?

7. Bread, milk and eggs: It’s like everyone gets the urge to make French Toast.

   1. Which, apparently, requires more than normal amounts toilet paper.

   2. That’s from the NE part of the country. Seems like anytime they forecast the possibility of a snow storm, those three things fly off the shelves as if you will be stuck at home for a month under feet of snow and ice, even if it does not snow they will do it again in three days with the next forecast and they still have all from the last time. Now I do not like powdered milk, but mixed with some flour or bisquik and yeast, bread fixins, especially if you have a bread machine. Add dried fruit for flavor. same for pancakes hold the yeast. Don’ know what’s wrong with folks nowadays. If it aint premade it ‘s not there.

8. You’re definitely right about the LDS folks. An army buddy of mine I chat often about these sorts of things with is getting VERY worried about things to come…even moreso than usual.

   But, don’t forget: a significant part of this is due to inflation. The dollar simply doesn’t buy as much as it used to.

   If we’re living in times where even a Big Mac meal is a noticable purchase on the bank statement, I’m not surprised a can of Mountain House costs what it does.

   1. What stood out to me the most, was the option to do a ‘1-3 day delivery’….
      It used to be a ‘single $10 no matter how much you bought’ shipping rate, be it a single case or a pallet of case(s)
      It gets there when it gets there…

      Now? I dig the inflationary side of it… Hell, the dried cans of strawberries are $87 a case (see screenshot)

      But in the 10 +/- years I’ve been using them, there were never any shipping options for speed.
      The LDS kids NEVER had essentially what appears to be a “Flat-Rate 1-3 Day FedEx for Food” so to speak.

      It reeks of “Everybody get yer shit ready most Ricky Tick!”

      1. It really looks like the neocons might get their war with Iran and before the election too!

         They think that will save Kamala and hide/save the economy. They are wrong but, when has that stopped them?

9. Mountain House is good for long term food storage but for the NOW it’s cheaper to buy regular wally world canned meats and veggies. I use the canned chicken (rinse it!) with rice which makes great quick meal. Canned chili is also cheap and lasts a long while.

   1. Sav-a-lot is cheaper than wally world and Aldi’s often has better meat prices than any food market. Just not as large a selection. Ex. Publix hamburger $5.99/lb, Aldi $4.59 for preformed patties.

      1. Thanks for the heads up on Aldi’s. They are converting our Winn Dixie to that and I know nothing about them.

      2. Sam’s or Costco are even better. Just the savings on over-the-counter medications like Benadryl and vitamins will pay the yearly membership fee. And who can beat a 10lb bag of potatoes for $5.99.

         Their meats consistently run at least 25% cheaper than even Walmart. The thing is, buy a flat or two of the meats, slice or portion them out to proper serving sizes and freeze those suckers.

         Also, the deals on bulk cheese and butter can’t be beat. Same with bags of rice, 50lbs for $25 when even Walmart sells a 20lb bag for $20. Honey, 32oz for $14. Best price for bulk dry yeast and cornstarch. Same with spices (buy the big containers and refill the smaller bottles. Spices don’t really go bad.) You do have to know what the store prices are.

         1. I already do Sam’s but that’s usually a once or twice a month run. Bought bulk rice and beans from there that I have stored in 5 gallon buckets.

            The wife has really gotten in to making her own stuff: butter, mayonnaise, bread, cheese, sour cream, yogurt etc.

            We live in a subdivision but the lots are about a half acre. I have a 40’x40’ garden both summer and winter. Twelve chickens and a hookup in the neighborhood for raw milk ( gallon a week). One of my good friends from the military lives about 3 miles from here and raises rabbits. My only hobby ( obsession) is hunting and I do all my own processing. The deep freezer stays pretty full. I try to remind myself how blessed I am compared to many others.

            1. Your connections with good people are the real blessings.

               I’m blessed with a well developed circle of productive friends like you. I’ve done the “watch the chickens” for neighbors as they need some help. Its a back and forth blessing.

               Lone wolves worry me as they have little but firepower when the drinking water fails.

               Some locally are on my better off dead list.

            2. Good on you, Brother. Building relationships is objectively the most important thing we can do. I pray, poke, and prod for more folks to do it. If you want community, you have to build it.

         2. Lately, full packer briskets in Costco have been running $1/lb less than ground beef. Only thing is, they won’t grind it for you. You have to have your own or know someone if you want to make it into ground beef.

            1. I’ll buy whole boneless porkloins and cut my own ‘boneless pork chops.’ Same with meat for stir-fry and breakfast steak, buy a whole bottom round ‘roast,’ cut off what I want for stir fry and such, and have a 5-6lb roast to make pot-roast and convert leftovers from pot roast into roast beef for sandwiches and for beef vegetable soup.

               I try to stay away from the already packaged chubs (big sausage roll) of ground beef, as every outbreak from bad ground beef has been linked to central processing plants, not beef ground in-store. But I do buy 5-6lbs of store-ground beef and divide it up, or buy a couple packs of already-measured out pucks or patties and repackage them for individual portion size (cooking for two? two packs. simple.)

10. Billy, it seems like you have been having lots of digestive issues lately.
    The VA killed my dad by sluffing off his gut (intestinal) issues until his colon cancer was rampant.
    Please have a GI check. If something is out of whack, catching it early is best.
    God bless y’all.

    1. Something to FDA approves blood test for colorectal cancer screening among average-risk adults in the US https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/29/health/fda-colorectal-cancer-screening-blood-test/index.html be aware of:

       1. errr… ‘Something to be aware of’ …

       2. It is an issue.

          Unless you are starving and that is all you have, then not so much

11. I can guess that your Boomer in laws are stubborn but it sounds like a review of their monthly budget is due. I guarantee that they are paying on a bunch of crap that they don’t need.
    Regarding cable, I know that it seems like a waste of money BUT for elderly people who are housebound, it is critical. It is their only link to the outside World and entertainment. I know people will jump on saying the much cheaper options (which there are) BUT elderly people have trouble learning new things and that generation is not that tech savvy.
    As an aside, it really really pisses me off when they (assholes who all are getting a government check) say “the economy is just fine”. People are having trouble buying groceries for God’s sake and companies are filing bankruptcy left and right. Here in Florida Badcock’s furniture chain filed BK this week after 125 years in business. People can’t afford to buy new furniture, but the economy is GREAT… right ?

    1. Yes to review of the cable/internet package. If they don’t watch modern movies much, HBO et al can be gotten rid of, same with sports packages that are bloated.

       Sit down with them, identify what channels they do actually watch and then go to the cable store (not over the phone) and find a plan that gives them what they actually watch (and, of course, a lot of stuff they don’t watch because everything is packages and bundles and such.)

       Same with interwebs. If they ain’t gaming or online all the time, a slower plan is better cash-wise.

       As to cell-services, if they have them, get them far away as possible from the biggies. Tell AT-T or Sprint or whomever to go piss up a rope after transferring them to H2O or Mint or one of the other low-cost carriers. Their phones and phone numbers should transfer over to the new carrier no problem.

       It’s gonna be a bitch, but you (and this goes for all of you with parents and grand parents and old people you like or family members who are too stupid to look down during a rainstorm) got to sometimes be brutally honest, like dealing with an addict, as to monetary stuff, especially utilities and other ‘essentials.’

12. https://elderaffairs.org/programs-services/nutrition-programs/
    https://www.fns.usda.gov/sfmnp/senior-farmers-market-nutrition-program
    Most every state and locality has some sort of Senior Food Program. Even the Cow Counties of Nevada have a monthly distribution. Urban areas such as Commifornia are pretty much unlimited. Check these out and see if there are Meal 2 Wheels type services. Would think with all the Seniors that flock to Florida there are services available. Certainly there are underemployed social workers that salivate at the possibility of working with oldsters that not only speak English, but won’t rob, rape or steal their cars during visits.

    Give it a try

13. Cable news is all propaganda and lies. Cutting the cord is the best thing we have ever done.

    I think it might be best to consolidate resources – ie: have them move in

    1. Cut cord years ago, never missed it. There is free tv online, don’t watch it either. https://ustvgo.live/

       1. cb,
          The last time we owned a television set was sometime last century.
          We have zero interest in televisionprogramming.

14. The Mormon food supply stuff is indeed handy but they were “persecuted” just like the Joos, namely it was mostly self-inflicted by being shitheads wherever they went (said as a former Mormon myself). They have some bizarre end-times eschatology but I have some of their stuff in my stash as well.

    1. Mountain Meadow Massacre comes to mind.

       1. I came across that location quite by accident a few months ago. It’s an interesting story.

          1. Pretty country around there, did you stop and grab you a pie in Veyo?

             1. Brother, you know it. Veyo pies are the best.
                There are only two kinds of pie I like-hot and cold. The pizza across the street isn’t bad, either.
                Down there again this week; had an outage last night so all double yesterday and today! Hot as fuck though.

             2. Make that coin while you can Brother…

15. Turn water on and adjust to a comfortable temp.
    Wet self down.
    Turn water off.
    Soap up and scrub.
    Turn water back on for rinse.

    1. Most of these folks are clueless how nice a shipboard shower is, and then there’s water rationing too, like odds and evens.
       WestPac, MedCruise and a week on a WW2 Guppy class sub for amphib ops at below freezing in Jan.

    2. Trailer,
       We full-time live-aboard our ExpeditionVehicle.
       We shower using a Craftsman 20v battery-operated garden-sprayer.
       .
       We heat water on our ancient Coleman two-burner propane stove.
       A pair of 4qt/liter(litre) pots, boiling, that goes right into the 4-gallon/16liter(litre) hopper.
       Depending on outside temperature, we either boil another one or two pots or add ambient water to fill the hopper.
       .
       A full hopper lasts about twelve minutes with the pressure set to ‘HIGH’.
       .
       We like the Craftsman 20v battery-operated tools.
       We have 20v chain-saws, various industrial hand-tools, and a weed-whacker.

       1. I have a design for a natural water heater if you want… uses a 4in diameter PVC pipe, and can be pressurized with a bike pump. You install it near the roof, and paint it matte black, and the UV gets the water heated up naturally. Not -as fast- as what you’re doing, but nonetheless, a viable concept. DM Me if you want to know moar!

16. Cold showers in Kandahar. Brings me back. When we first got there all we had was PVC pipe with holes punched in it for showerhead and the floor was wooden pallets. No heated water. Eventually we got shower trailers, but if you were out on a mission and late coming in the shower was ice cold to the point you could see your breath in front of you.

    Hurricane preparedness. My God people are fucking retarded. At any one time I have at least three months worth of food at my house in the form of canned goods, etc. Nothing worse than a storm entering the gulf and needing a loaf of bread for sandwiches during the week. Not to mention the bottle water. We don’t have as many out of staters like you do, but we got retards that moved out of Baton Rouge into my AO that are every bit is dumb and panicky.

    One suggestion on the cable bill. Fire stick. We got one three Christmases ago as a “white elephant“ gift at the family Christmas. We love it. I’ve recently discovered Pluto. Two classic western channels action channels you name it. Classic sitcom channels to And it’s free. We can also get the local news and weather on it.

    Good luck on the in-laws. at least you can talk to your father-in-law. Mine is to the left of Rob Reiner.

17. Ha, ha, ha, Momma taking long time to get ready. My wife was a profession model(Ford agency in NY wanted to hire her when she was 14 – her momma said no) in her teens(cir. mid 50’s).
    And she never forgot. I used to tell her that we had to be somewhere 2hrs earlier then real time because when I first met her, putting herself together was a three hour trip. (You know how a pro model does her make-up? She puts it all on, then wipes it all off, then puts it on again.) Damn after 50 years with her, I miss that woman. . .
    And in the old days you could hit the Mormon warehouse outside of Tampa and buy off the shelf cases of their products.
    Stay safe down there, Dude. 0007 100mi north

18. Couple of thoughts on this post.
    Last time we went to Wally World, every third scan a third worlder would have to scan a card, that I’d not been stealing.
    Came home, compared new throw away plates to old – they had shrunk too. Like mentally being prepared to consume a lot less food?
    If you all haven’t read it yet, a really good ebook (kindle unlimited) on zon, is “The Mandibles” by Lionel Shriver.

19. BCE – you almost certainly qualify for Comcast Internet Essentials. I worked from home (voice calls through the computer while logged into and utilizing several proprietary and hyper-secure systems – all the while texting and calling coworkers on my phone – same wifi) while my 2 teenagers streamed TV in their rooms while constantly on their phones with the cheapest program they have ($10/mo – 50 Mbps.) They have higher speed options but I NEVER had a problem – even when my kids were doing school on zoom during the pandemic. Look into the veteran eligibility. We have no cable, no landlines, nothing – and we can stream whatever we want. I also bought a $150 laptop through that program and it is entirely adequate. Comcast serves your area and it’s a huge perk you should be taking advantage of.

20. Post Office says: Hey, we are just like the SS… we dunno how to do our job either. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/will-your-vote-count-2024-usps-audit-reveals/

21. Re preparing: at least one, preferably 2 oil filters and appropriate oil for any vehicle you want to keep running. Some marinas sell 89 octane with no ethanol for boats – with some Sta-bil it’ll stay good longer than regular gasoline if kept sealed.
    Got a gas grill? An extra cylinder or two, kept full is good insurance against your cookout getting spoiled in good times and could give quite a bit of cooking in bad times.
    Coelacanth

    1. We actually have quite a few ‘non-ethanol’ gas stations on the Alafia River here… better gas for the water toys… bit more expensive, but better for long term viability

22. Lately, full packer briskets in Costco have been running $1/lb less than ground beef. Only thing is, they won’t grind it for you. You have to have your own or know someone if you want to make it into ground beef.

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